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12 Ways to Realizing a Fake News Website

The increase in social media networks and blogging platforms that allow one to open a personally customized website have led to many people opening personal websites and owning domain names. While this is an achievement to be celebrated, some people, unfortunately, are using these sites and their right of expression to distribute fake news and spread rumors. This increase in such sites can be related to the people’s desire to attract traffic to their sites and benefit from it. What start as satire can be fun as long as the people reading it recognize it that way, but if it is misinterpreted, it can lead to extensive damage. It is funny how a lie can quickly spread over social media through the sharing icon and reach a huge number of people within a very short period.

Many sites are always spreading hoax stories. Some tell fake stories about celebrities, others take true stories but add more salt to the injury hence creating a whole new meaning while others focus on making fun of the trending news. While it may not be easy to track and list all websites that spread gossip, the following tips can help you distinguish those sites;

The story should always match the image or the video in the story if not then that is a fake site, and you should believe anything you read there.

Check if the story can be found in other major news outlets and if not then you know.

If you follow up on the source of the news, it is unclear leaving you with doubts.

Looking at other stories on that website are also fake and without basis

Having definite date predicting the end of the world, this is so fake since no one knows the time or the hour.

Talks of the discovery of something for instance medication that reputable research site have no information about.

The “About Us” page for these pages is filled with fluff and not definite about what they offer.

Fake stories tend to be more interesting to keep you glued on reading them and also prompt you into sharing them in your network. This way the stories quickly spread far and wide.

In most cases these stories also feature a poll that is usually tampered with or didn’t happen at all.

Some of these websites impersonate favorite news sites, but if you look at their addresses, they have old domain names.

It is common for the fake stories to mess with your feeling and emotions, after reading, you either get too happy or angry

Old stories doing rounds on the net through sharing option. If you can trace back the story and their originality, you will realize that it, in fact, has been doing rounds on the web for quite a long time.

Some stories are easy to detect as fake while others are hard to, but with the above tips, you can quickly know when the story is a hoax. Before rushing to share any piece of news you get online, try determining its genuineness. Remember it might be funny to you but can change another person’s life.